The interview which was granted to Reuter's correspondent. in Tokyo by Mr. Koki Hirota, the Japanese Foreign Minister, will doubtless have been read with very great interest, though to most people the statements he made will fail to carry much conviction. They contain very little that is new, and, taken as a whole, amount to a. restatement ai utterances which have frequently been made by various Japanese spokesmen, so that the only added significance to be found lies in the fact that it has been made by so high an authority as the Minister himself. It is perhaps just as well, however, that Mr. Hirota's replies to the questions asked should be placed on record, for, at some time or other in the future, it will be necessary to compare these promises with ultimate fulfilment, It is quite possible to understand that, when Mr. Hirota states that it is the fundamental policy of the Japanese Government to continue the policy of the Open Door in the occupied territory in China, he believes what he says. At least it is ta be hoped that he does, If that is indeed the case then he must be grievously mising formed as to what is actually happening in north China even now, where, by the contrivance of monopolistic enterprises, foreign traders are not only being placed at a definite disadvantage, but are actually being squeezed out. A notable example is the question of the wool trade to which this journal has already had occasion to refer. There is no possibility of doubting what Mr. Hirota means on the subject, He is perfectly explicit when he says "Other Powers will continue to enjoy an equal right to trade in and develop the natural resources of the occupied territory, for the economic development of which the inva: ment of foreign capital is very desirable. Cynics will naturally point to the foregoing as indicating the nature of the Open Door policy, an opening for the entrance of foreign capital to. develop the territory in the interests of Japan, the supplying of money for the grandiose schemes out of which Japan hopes to gain a profit on the very heavy investment she is making herself in China in the shape of these hostilities.
Mr. Hirota excuses the discrimination in favour of Japanese imports into north China, under the revised tariff enforced on January 22 of this year, as an emergency measure, adopted for the purpose of the relief and reconstruction of devastated areas, and an indispensable and unavoidable one on the part of the Provisional Government. It is a very weak excuse, for he suggests that the only goods suitable for the rehabilitation of that China Raids Japan hi Japanese spokesmen yesterday described it a one of Genera) Chi si-shek's dreams, but if the reports are correct, reversing the procedure, Chinese replanes appeared over Japan yesterday morning and although they were unaccompanied by bombs, the raid initiates a new phose in the hostilities which will undoubtedly cause Japan to pause and consider. Hitherto, the offensive action of ai units has been principally on the side of the Japanese. operating from bases and aircraft carriers in China or Chinese waters, but now that it has been proved that the Chinese can strike back the circumstances are entirely different, From an "undisclosed base" it is reported Chinese aeroplanes flew to Japan, circled over Osaka, the great manufacturing city and centre of Japan's industrial area, passed over Sasebo, the naval base. and returned safely to China with one important object accomplished—demonstration of the fact that Japanese towns and cities might too be subjected to the aerial bombardments which scores of Chinese towns and cities have suffered. By dropping leaflets instead of bombs, the Chinese machines gained a great advantage for the propaganda-fed mind of the Japanese people, since the beginning of the Sino-Japanese, could not have conceived the possibility of air reprisals, harmless as they were yesterday. It is not believed that more then two or three machines participated in the flight but it is known that China does possess a number of long distance bombing planes with a 3,000 miles radius which enables raids on Japanese territory as far as Osaka, if not Tokyo. The fact that the only evidence of defence was "black-outs" of cities does not mean that Japan is unprepared, but, to the contrary. shows that the authorities re of possibili-lies and sometime are a better means of protecting a ci direct air and anti-aircraft combat. Thi: phase of the new Sine nese conflict has grave potentialities, The Pessimist Mr. H. B. Butler. director of the International Labour Office at Geneva, draws a gloomy picture of social progress throughout the world being subordinated to preparations against war, in his annual report. which was published yes terday, and what he saw last.yea larkening shadow" he now regards as a "threat to blot out the light from the whole earth." He apparently is another of that large number of persons who believe that war is inevitable, and that the whole of the European civilization has to go down in a welter of blood. That is most probably due to the natural pain he must feel t the knowledge of the huge sums of money which are going into armaments and which could have done so much good to humanity had they been devoted to social processes. It is a thought which must appeal to any reasonably minded man, for it represents the height of human stupidity that through all these centuries the human animal, with all his ability to think and reason, has not yet found some means to settle differences without resort to brute force.
Reduced into simple terms the duel which has been arranged between two French celebrities clearly emphasized the point. They quarrelled in the course of a controversy, and have decided that resort to arms is the only way of settling the matter. That duel will settle nothing. It may not even decide which is the best swordsman, for accidents are as likely to happen in duelling as in boxing, and the best man need not necessarily win. Consequently it is not the prospect of war in the future which should be so disturbing: that is probably just as unlikely now as it has ever been. The real cause for anxiety is that humanity has not yet prosressed far beyond the philosophy of the brute, n regarded in the mass, though in the in-there has undoubtedly been much improvement,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.